3) The IRS scandal rears its ugly head yet again. No, this is not a story from last winter. Congress ordered the IRS to investigate this new attempt at dodging taxes. Congress got the investigation it ordered. Congress was unhappy it was targeting their supporters because, guess what? The guy who they put in charge of the investigation knew where the crimes were being committed and so did his job!

Thursday, July 10, 2014

A new report released by research and news organization Climate Central predicts that by the year 2100 our usual 82 degree average summer weather will reach an average of around 91 degrees—the equivalent to an average July day spent in Lehigh Acres, Florida.

Of course, New York isn't the only city with a rising thermometer; Los Angeles and Miami temperatures could both see a jump of seven degrees, while northeastern Pennsylvania could see an increase as large as 11 degrees.

The report examines projected daytime summer temperatures for 1,001 cities across the United States, and matches them to other cities who already experience those projected temperatures today. Frighteningly, some city projections are too hot to match, and had to be linked to other parts of the world.

"In some cases, summers will warm so dramatically that their best comparison is to cities in the Middle East. Take Las Vegas, for example. Summer highs there are projected to average a scorching 111°F, which is what summer temperatures are like today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And at an average 114°F°, living in Phoenix will feel like summering in sweltering Kuwait City," the study states.

I suppose if there’s a bit of good news in there, it’s that Arizonans and Floridians and other redneck numbnuts will finally be forced to reckon with global warming. Only it will boil down to them wearing dishdashas and kaffiyahs, rather than doing something to stop it.

To be sure, NYC is an industrious city and we’re well on the road to preparation. Many office buildings already have air conditioning, many companies already have infrastructure in place to deal with telecommuting and keeping people and cars off the streets and of course, there’s the comprehensive public transit system.

The folks I feel for are the suburban commuters who will have to deal with Floridian temperatures while sitting in their cars in traffic. Anyone who’s sat on the LIE for an hour waiting for an accident to clear can only begin to imagine what that’s going to feel like.

Also, there’s no guarantee that anyone on Long Island or Miami will be able to drive anywhere, unless they own a submersible car. There’s that thought too…

No country is more closely associated with soccer than Brazil. None have won more World Cup titles than Brazil’s five. None have so feverishly demanded style with victory. None could be more stricken by such total and bewildering defeat.

“We ask for forgiveness,” Scolari said.

Forgiveness will be hard to come by. The last time Brazil lost a game in the knockout round of the World Cup on home turf was in 1950 when Uruguay beat them 2-1. Those players still hear about it, some 55 years later.

This time around, the host nation endured huge protests as people felt rightly that wasting billions of dollars on stadia that would be used for only a handful of games and then basically abandoned to teams that might play for a few thousand people. Literally (Yes the Olympics are coming, but…) I can't imagine there won't be backlash on a enormous scale.

It’s hard to equate this experience to the average American, without either understating its importance or swerving into full blown hyperbole, but imagine if the original United States Dream Team in basketball – Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan et al. – lost to the Argentinian team that Olympics by a score of 80-12.

Monday, July 07, 2014

And remember how they supported unions, the (informed) workers supported unions, and hell, most of America wanted to see those plants opening up here because, jobs? And it was only a small handful of conservative morons who were all Socialism!!!!!, which of course neglects the fact that the same “socialism” was expanding production into America?

That’s not to say that these two Chinese factories wouldn’t have been built anyway – China is still a huge nation and can easily support more factories – but it is to say that many manufacturers have found it cheaper to build in America for export to China, and so maybe that plan was scrapped?

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing